In ‘Trauma in the Classroom’ I explored the impact of early years’ trauma on a child’s attachment behaviour and how that impacted on their ability to manage in the classroom. Now I want to explore the curriculum in more detail and highlight some of the specific areas that may be triggers from the past that cause traumatised children to be re-traumatised.
Adoptive parents know how important it is to understand as fully as possible the traumas that their children have suffered during the time before they became part of their family. Children develop behavioural responses to survive the environment and experiences they encounter, so knowing what their life was like before they knew them helps parents to understand their behaviours and how their brains have been hard-wired. If they understand their child’s response to particular situations they have a better chance of managing difficult or challenging behaviours, are less likely to re-traumatise and more likely to be able to re-frame experiences and help their child to develop more appropriate responses.
Understanding their child’s early life experiences will also help parents to understand which developmental experiences they have missed. They can then re-parent them to give them those experiences of play, cooperation, trust, relationship building, sharing and safe exploration of their environment that are so vital to their development.
It takes many years for a child to recover from early years’ trauma, even if they were taken into care shortly after birth. For many children placed for adoption they have had several months or even years of abuse and neglect in a dysfunctional family before moving into foster care, and several more months or years before coming into a permanent family. Even if they are placed into their adoptive family before they are school age, their past will impact upon their learning as they embark on school life.
Vital Knowledge
It is vital, therefore, that a child’s teacher has as full as possible an understanding of their early life experiences. In my experience, however, many teachers will listen intently to what adoptive parents tell them about a child’s early life but may not have any real understanding of how this has affected their development:
- They may not understand that an adopted child is usually several years behind their peers in their social, emotional and behavioural development
- They may not make the connection that particular elements of the curriculum which are appropriate for most children of a particular age are not appropriate for a child whose development has been compromised
- They may not realise that there are many areas of the curriculum that are trauma triggers for your child
- They may not realise that some elements of the curriculum are outside the experience of your child whilst within the experience of other children of the same age.
Parents need to help teachers to be able to stand in their child’s shoes and feel what their child might have felt living with abuse, neglect, threat and uncertainty. Building up a good rapport with the school, the head teacher and the class teacher will help to manage the sometimes unrealistic expectations that the school has of what a traumatised adopted child can manage. Sharing information and an attitude of collaboration will help the teacher to manage the curriculum with the minimal amount of trauma for the child. However, it must be emphasised that any information is shared confidentially and must be treated as such by everyone working with the child.